Orlando Bloom Biography

Actor

Born January 13, 1977, in Canterbury, Kent, England; son of Harry Bloom
(an activist) and Sonia Copeland–Bloom (a language instructor).
Education:
National Youth Theatre of London; British American Drama Academy;
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 1996–99.

Addresses:

Agent
—c/o ICM, Oxford House, 76 Oxford St., London W1D 1BS, England.

Career

Actor in films, including:
Wilde,
1997;
Black Hawk Down,
2001;
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,
2001;
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,
2002;
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,
2003;
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,
2003;
Ned Kelly,
2003. Television appearances include:
Midsomer Murders,
2000;
Smack the Pony,
2000. Stage appearances include:
Casualty, London's Burning, Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya, Little
Me, Peer Gynt.

Awards:

Empire Award for best debut for
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,
2001; best breakthrough star award, MTV Movie Awards, for
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,
2002.

Sidelights

Actor Orlando Bloom got his first big break when he was cast as the
elven archer Legolas Greenleaf in the film trilogy
Lord of the Rings.
His good

Orlando Bloom

looks and acting ability quickly transformed him from an unknown to a
young heartthrob, but he also garnered favorable critical reviews. Since
filming the trilogy, Bloom has worked steadily on a variety of films,
and his career continues to grow.

Bloom grew up in Canterbury, England, where his mother ran a language
academy for foreign students; his father, Harry Bloom, was a Jewish
South African anti–apartheid activist and author of a novel,
Transvaal Episode.
Harry Bloom died when his son was four years old. Bloom became
interested in acting at a very early age; he was captivated with
television and movie characters, as well as by street performers. He was
particularly fascinated by the fact that one actor could portray many
different people so convincingly. "I loved James Dean," he
told Cindy Pearlman in the
Houston Chronicle,
"because he put so much passion in his work."

Bloom's mother encouraged him and his sister to participate in
local poetry and Bible readings, feeding his interest in drama and
performance. When Bloom was 16, after winning several contests for
reciting poetry and Bible verses, he left school and moved to London to
join the National Youth Theatre. After spending two seasons with the
theater,
he earned a scholarship to train with the British American Drama
Academy. While training, he auditioned for a variety of television and
film roles, and won small parts in the plays
Casualty
and
London's Burning.
His appearance in a play at London's Tricycle Theater led him to
acquire an agent, a big step for a young actor. Bloom then spent three
years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. At Guildhall, he
appeared in a number of plays, including
Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya, Little Me,
and
Peer Gynt.
He also made his film debut in the film
Wilde,
a biography of Oscar Wilde, which was critically acclaimed; in the
film, Bloom played a young prostitute.

While at Guildhall, Bloom suffered an accident that could have ended his
career, if not his life. In 1998, at the age of 21, he was the home of
friends, who told him that the door to their roof terrace was warped and
couldn't be opened from the inside. Someone would have to get to
it from the outside, and kick it in. Bloom climbed out a window and onto
a drainpipe, planning to climb along to the roof, where he could open
the door. However, his weight was too much for the pipe, which gave way.
Bloom fell three stories to the ground below, breaking his back, and was
unable to move. He spent the next four days in a hospital, trying to
understand what the doctors were telling him: that he would never walk
again. He underwent surgery in which metal plates were bolted to his
spine, but the doctors warned him that this was risky, that it would
probably not be successful, and that at best, he would still have severe
damage to his bones and nerves. Despite this depressing prognosis, he
left the hospital 12 days later—walking, though with crutches.
Shortly after, he was able to walk without the crutches. He did have to
learn to walk again, reminding himself how to do it by repeating
"heel–ball–toe" with each step.

Bloom told Jeff Dawson in the
Weekend Australian,
"It was kind of the making of me, really. I feel like it really
tested my belief in myself and everything else because they told me
I'd be in a wheelchair. It took a while for me to really
comprehend what had happened." He continued to pursue his
interest in sports and horseback riding, although he admitted to
Pearlman that he became more cautious: "If I'm going to
get on a snowboard, I'm aware that I could do serious damage to
myself. So I don't just fly off a cliff and hope there will be a
big pile of snow beneath me instead of a rock. I check to make sure that
the snow is there." He also considered buying a motorcycle, but
rejected the idea because it was too risky.

Although Bloom had planned on a career in the theater, soon after
graduating from Guildhall he landed a part in a television series,
Midsomer Murders.
He had also attracted the interest of casting agents for director Peter
Jackson, who was planning the three–film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings,
based on the fantasy trilogy of that name by J.R.R. Tolkien. The
trilogy would be filmed in New Zealand. Within a year of his fall from
the drain-pipe, Bloom was riding horses through the trilogy's
fictional land of Middle Earth, playing an elf, Legolas Greenleaf. The
role would be a breakout for Bloom, since it not only guaranteed him
work in three films, but the films would garner international attention.
For the role, Bloom had to hide his brown hair under a long blond wig,
transform his brown eyes to blue with contact lenses, and wear pointed
elf ears over his own, but he was nevertheless recognizable as a new
talent on the big screen. Female fans in particular went wild over
Bloom, making him the newest teen heartthrob. For his role in the
trilogy, he won an Empire Award for Best Debut as well as an MTV Movie
Award for Best Breakthrough Star.

While filming the trilogy, Bloom fell off a horse and broke several
ribs, but this did not prevent him from continuing to work. All three
parts of the trilogy were filmed simultaneously, which required Bloom
and the other cast members to spend a year and a half in New Zealand.
Bloom told Henry Cabot Beck in
Interview,
"It was like winning the lottery. I mean, imagine being flown to
this amazing country and being taught how to shoot a bow and arrow,
learn to ride horses and study swordplay.… Not until I'd
filmed a few scenes did I finally believe it was actually
happening." Bloom enjoyed learning these skills, and became quite
proficient at archery. He was able to shoot paper plates out of the sky
and while riding a horse, dropping the reins to loose arrows at enemies.
During the filming, much of the movie had to be kept secret, so Bloom
and the other actors were not allowed to take photographs of themselves
in costume, and while riding back and forth to work with makeup on, had
to wear hooded jackets to hide their appearance. By the time the long
period of filming ended, the cast and crew had become very close, and
when Jackson called the end of the final scene, they were all crying.
The stuntmen, in tribute to the film and those who worked on it, did a
Maori dance called a "hucker." "It was really sad
and hugely emotional," Bloom told Amy Longsdorf in the
Record.
The trilogy, which was released in 2001, 2002, and 2003, was a hit with
audiences as well as with critics.

Bloom's other 2001 film,
Black Hawk Down,
provided an odd reflection of Bloom's real life: his character
in the film was a United States marine who fell out of a helicopter and
was similarly injured. Unlike Bloom, the character was carried out of
the action
on a stretcher early in the film, and did not return. In 2003's
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,
Bloom played the romantic lead, Will Turner, a former
blacksmith–turned–pirate who joins Jack Sparrow, played by
Johnny Depp, in mayhem on the high seas. Together, the two must rescue a
beautiful maiden from an evil pirate. Bloom thought he would enjoy the
movie because as a child he had watched many pirate movies on long
Sunday afternoons, and like many other children, had imagined being
involved in boat–to–boat battles, swinging on ropes and
brandishing swords. In addition, Bloom, who as a young man had idolized
Depp, told the
Houston Chronicle
's Pearlman. "Knowing that Johnny Depp was involved in
this movie made it a no–brainer for me. Johnny is such a hero of
mine." Depp advised Bloom that he should take roles that were
meaningful to him, not simply go for the money, and to give his career
time if it needed to develop. However, Bloom's career was not
slow to develop, and he did not have to wait to make money.
Pirates of the Caribbean
director Gore Verbinski told Jeff Chu in
Time International
that Bloom's appeal was that he was both "beautiful and
accessible. As cool as Orlando can be, there is also something there you
can relate to." Bloom admitted that all the attention he was
getting made him nervous, telling Chu, "Celebrity and stardom are
never things I wanted. To acknowledge that's what's
happening is odd. To admit it to yourself, that seems wrong."

Bloom next appeared in
Ned Kelly,
directed by Gregor Jordan. The film, about the life of Australian
outback robber Ned Kelly, featured Bloom as a member of Kelly's
gang. Jordan told the
Record
's Longsdorf, "Orlando is a movie star waiting to
happen.… He's in the long tradition of guys like James
Dean and Russell Crowe. There's just something about him that
makes people want to sit in the dark and watch him on the movie
screen."

Bloom was cast as the romantic lead, Paris, in
Troy,
based on the ancient epic, the Iliad. He told the
Weekend Australian
's Dawson, "I suppose I'm getting into that
position, which I suppose all actors want to be in, where I have some
control over what I'm doing, yet what goes with that is a whole
new series of pressures." He told Dawson that while filming the
movie, he and costar Brad Pitt went out to dinner and were mobbed with
photographers and crowds of fans. Of Pitt's response, Bloom said,
"I was so impressed with the way he kind of kept his composure.
But it's bizarre to see how one person can have that kind of
effect on that many people just immediately. It was really
scary." Bloom also began filming or contracted for roles in
The Calcium Kid, Kingdom of Heaven, Pirates of the Caribbean 2,
and
Haven
(which he is co–producing). In addition, Bloom told Dawson that
his own growing fame, as well as his busy film schedule, was beginning
to catch up with him. "It's been such a whirlwind since
the release of the first
Rings
film.… I guess the novelty's wearing off—all the
travel, all the excitement of doing the press stuff." When told
he had been named one of 2003's "It" people by
Entertainment Weekly,
he laughed and said, according to the
Houston Chronicle
's Pearlman, "That's huge. Massive. What is
'it'?" Bloom told the
Record
's Longsdorf, "You know, the heartthrob thing—I
hope that it won't stop me from making more interesting choices,
because that's what I intend to try and do."